Why is Sailor Saturn merchandise so rare? (revised 4/11/06)

 When Sailor Moon got canceled in Japan, Bandai stopped producing Sailor Moon merchandise a while later. But this is when Sailor Moon started gaining popularity in the US. So  by the time you got into Sailor Moon it was very pricey to buy some of the imports from Japan. In turn, it became hard to find Sailor Saturn merchandise. In the years 1998-2000 there was virtually no Sailor Saturn toys or dolls available to anyone unless you had a lot of money and luck. Ebay is one place to find Saturn stuff, but there’s not a whole lot. Some dolls sell over 300 dollars, and you just don't have the money for something like that. The fact is that, just a few years ago, something like that would be priced as $30 or less. The thing is, some of the other Sailor Moon merchandise is actually affordable, like a Sailor Mars figure or a Sailor Uranus doll, all cheap enough and plenty to go around. But not Sailor Saturn, why is that?

   It's supply and demand, that's all it is. There's such a high demand for Sailor Saturn toys that the price goes up. Saturn merchandise becomes scarce and hard to get, which may be another reason why so many people want to buy Sailor Saturn merchandise.

   So why is Saturn popular? I guess there could be a lot of reasons why. Here's my reason, it's because she's a quiet sailor soldier of death who has a really cool looking weapon. If you compare her to the other Sailor Moon characters, you'll find that she is very different from them and that she's not in the show a lot.  Because of that, it maybe another reason why Sailor Saturn merchandise is so sought after. But I like Sailor Saturn, 'cause she's cool. ^_^

   This isn't the first time a shy anime character is a favorite among many. Look at Evangelion, Rei is the favorite character but she isn't the main character, Shinji is. Also in  Martian Successor Nadesico, Ruri seems to be the favorite among fans.  Of course this doesn't happen in most anime, but it happens once in awhile, when a supporting character outshines the main character.

   So what do you do when your favorite senshi is no where to be found? Give up? Wait? Waiting would have been a good bet, because in the year 1999, Sailor moon made a come back in Japan with the live action Sailor Moon musicals, and reruns of Sailor Moon on TV. So new Sailor Moon merchandise started coming out at the end of the year, and it was only a matter of time before Sailor Saturn goodies came out, and they did. In 2000, Sailor Saturn came out as a doll in a set with the other outer Sailor Senshi, The Sailor Moon Mini collection DX2.  In the next few years more Saturn stuff has come out, such as individual dolls and figures.  Even Sailor Moon  in the US gained enough popularity for Toy Company, Irwin, to produce a Sailor Saturn doll of 11.5 inches. The largest Sailor Saturn doll ever made. However, Irwin, the toy company is dead and Sailor Moon is off American TV.

So as of this moment, no new Sailor Moon or Saturn merchandise is coming out.